BLOOD, BILLIONS & BETRAYAL! Ex-Minister Nkutu Family Torn Apart in Shock Property War as Siblings Conrad, Sophie & Martin Gang Up Against Last Born, Accused of Hatching Butabika Plot Over Dead Mother’s USD10m Empire

vicious family war has exploded inside the wealthy family of former Minister of Health and Works Shaban Kirunda Nkutu, decades after the powerful minister was brutally killed by the regime of dictator Idi Amin in 1973.

What started as a mourning period following the death of family matriarch Christine Namubiru Nkutu has now degenerated into accusations of betrayal, greed, arrests, court battles, alleged police plots, claims of attempted mental detention at Butabika, and a bitter fight over a multi-million-dollar property empire.

At the centre of the explosive fallout is the youngest sibling Emmanuel Balaba Kavuma, who now claims his elder siblings have allegedly ganged up against him after suspecting he was the biggest beneficiary in their mother’s Will.

“They anticipated he [Kavuma] might be a majority beneficiary of the Will so they wanted a plan to take over or control his portion too,” Kavuma friend told Red Pepper.

For the uninitiated, before his brutal murder in 1973 at the hands of the Amin regime he loyally served, the late Shaban Kirunda Nkutu had built what was then considered a beautiful and prominent family.

He was married to Christine Namubiru Nkutu and together they produced two children: Conrad Kirunda Nkutu and Sophie Michaela Kitimbo Nkutu.

Shaban and Christine

Conrad, born in 1967, later became a known corporate figure and once served as Managing Director of Monitor Publications’ Daily Monitor. He also previously headed Corporate Affairs for Tullow Oil in Uganda. Today, he is listed as a Non-Executive Director at Bank of Africa Tanzania and Managing Director of StrategosConsult.com.

Interestingly, Conrad’s original birth name was Abdul Gamal Kirunda Nkutu, reportedly named after his late father’s influential friend, former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. However, while studying at Namasagali College under Father Grimes around Senior Four, he reportedly abandoned the Muslim name and adopted the Christian identity “Conrad Nkutu.”

The second child of Minister Shaban Nkutu was Sophie Michaela Kitimbo Nkutu born in 1970. Sophie also reportedly converted to Christianity.

She has had an extensive corporate career spanning banking, telecommunications, consulting and board leadership.

Her last major formal employment was at dfcu Bank, where she rose to Chief Financial Officer. After leaving the bank, she reportedly ventured into a bakery business under Michaela Foods and Beverages Limited, but the business allegedly collapsed and swallowed most of her savings.

Despite whispers within the family that she is struggling financially, Sophie still sits on multiple corporate boards. She currently serves as a Non-Executive Director at Absa Group, aBi Development, and also sits on committees linked to Quality Chemical Industries Limited and FSD Africa. She previously worked at PwC, Vodafone Uganda and even London’s Royal Opera House and Christie’s.

Nkutu’s only two children Conrad and Sophie

Family insiders however say all is not rosy behind the glamorous boardroom profile. Sophie is unmarried and reportedly has no children.

The Nkutu paternal ancestral village and burial grounds remain in Busesa, Iganga District.

After the death of Shaban Nkutu, widow Christine Namubiru Nkutu later found love again with Joseph Musisi Mwanje of Kitala off Entebbe Road near Garuga. With Mwanje, she produced two more sons — Martin Kintu and the youngest, Emmanuel Balaba Kavuma, born in 1988. Mwanje has since also passed away.

Martin Kintu reportedly has one child.

This makes a total of four children—two from the late minister and two from late Mwanje.

Sources close to the family say Christine Namubiru Nkutu was an extremely hardworking woman who singlehandedly raised her children in comfort and privilege despite the tragedy of losing her husband during Amin’s bloody regime.

Over the years, she amassed enormous wealth running into over USD10 million. Her empire reportedly included apartments, condominiums, hotels, gardens, idle land, businesses and other prime properties.

Before her death, she resided at her lavish palatial residence on Plot 3 Alice Reef Close in Bugonga, Entebbe. She also owned another major family home at Plot 851 Kabaganda in Kiteezi Parish, Nangabo Sub-county in Wakiso District.

To manage her growing empire, Christine founded Sophies Limited as the central family company. Under the company fell businesses such as Sophies Signature Suites, Sophies Lake View Gardens and The Suites and Gardens etc.

With Mwanje, she produced two more sons — Martin Kintu and the youngest, Emmanuel Balaba Kavuma (second left)

With Mwanje, she produced two more sons Martin Kintu (pictured here) and the youngest, Emmanuel Balaba Kavuma

All four children together with their mother were directors and shareholders in Sophies Limited.

Since May 2021, the youngest son Emmanuel Balaba Kavuma had been Managing Director of Sophies Limited and according to family records, he was in direct personal control of the mother’s homes, businesses and assets until her death on December 18, 2025.

MOTHER FALLS SICK, DIES…CHAOS!

About three years ago, Christine Namubiru Nkutu’s health reportedly began deteriorating badly. She allegedly developed severe dementia and Alzheimer’s symptoms while also battling severe kidney disease and devastating stage four gallbladder cancer.

In early December 2025, she was admitted to Ruby Hospital on Lugogo Bypass in critical condition.

By around December 10th, family sources say her mind had completely deteriorated and she was declared mentally unsound.

That, according to insiders, is when the war truly began.

Family sources told Red Pepper that some siblings allegedly saw the terminal illness as an opportunity to obtain sweeping powers of attorney over their dying mother’s estate under the guise of raising money for treatment.

Yet insiders insist everybody already knew she was beyond medical redemption.

“She was terminally ill. There was no hospital or money in the world that could save her,” one family source said.

The alleged plan reportedly involved transferring sole authority over the estate to one child who would then dispose of major family assets supposedly to finance treatment.

Crucially, such a move would also have stripped Kavuma of effective control as Managing Director of Sophies Limited.

But Kavuma reportedly refused to sign the documents.

Sources claim the standoff became so intense that one sibling allegedly even secured bank loans while hoping the powers-of-attorney arrangement would eventually succeed.

Then on December 18th, 2025, Christine Namubiru Nkutu died before the alleged scheme could materialise.

No powers of attorney were signed.

No change in company control happened.

And according to sources, tempers exploded.

Barely a day after their mother’s death, Kavuma was arrested.

His elder siblings orchestrated his arrest on domestic violence and cyber harassment allegations and ensured he remained incarcerated throughout the burial period.

The case was reportedly registered at Entebbe Police under SD REF: 27/21/2025.

Kavuma allegedly spent five days detained at Entebbe CPS without being formally produced before court.

During that period, he missed his own mother’s burial.

But what happened next has left even close family friends stunned.

According to explosive information obtained by Red Pepper, there was allegedly a coordinated plan to transfer Kavuma from police custody straight to Butabika National Referral Mental Hospital and have him confined there as mentally unstable.

In chilling internal discussions allegedly shared among some family members, detailed steps were reportedly proposed on how to execute the operation.

One message allegedly read:

“I strongly agree with a swift execution of the Butabika option early tomorrow.”

The plan allegedly proposed that Kavuma be officially signed out from Entebbe CPS by police officers, escorted directly to Butabika and admitted for psychiatric evaluation.

The discussions allegedly suggested he should remain there for at least two weeks because courts would be non-functional during the holiday season.

The proposal allegedly further demanded that he be confined in the private wing under full-time watch, denied phone access and denied visitors because he could allegedly “plot our deaths from the hospital.”

Even more explosively, the discussions allegedly included proposals to prepare criminal cases against him, organise the unsealing and reading of the Will under video recording, and formally revoke his management authority in Sophies Limited while he remained hospitalised.

Family sources say Kavuma somehow learnt of the alleged plan and immediately disappeared into hiding.

Five months later, he is reportedly still in hiding.

Sources further allege that armed police officers were stationed full-time inside the Kabaganda property allegedly to ensure he could be immediately rearrested if he returned home.

The officers are reportedly costing about Shs6 million monthly.

SIBLINGS DRAG HIM TO COURT

Then came court.

In January this year Conrad Kirunda Nkutu, Sophie Michaela Kitimbo Nkutu and Martin Kintu dragged their younger brother to the Chief Magistrate’s Court at Kira under Miscellaneous Cause No. KIR-00-FD-MC-0002-2026.

Represented by Advocate Kenneth Kiapi of MMAKS Advocates, the siblings accused Kavuma of threatening them through WhatsApp messages, emails and intimidation tactics even after police bond.

The application sought sweeping restraining orders barring him from allegedly harassing, insulting, intimidating or contacting them in any way.

They also sought orders stopping him from demanding passwords, PINs, documents, devices or attempting to control estate properties at Entebbe and Kabaganda.

Kavuma did not appear in court and the matter proceeded ex parte.

In her ruling delivered on March 26, 2026, Her Worship Winifred Agelun found that evidence including WhatsApp messages and emails showed acts amounting to emotional, verbal and psychological abuse under the Domestic Violence Act.

The court restrained Kavuma from threatening, harassing, insulting or intimidating the applicants through calls, WhatsApp, email, SMS or social media.

However, the court stopped there.

The magistrate advised that issues relating to estate control and property disputes should instead be pursued through the probate process in the High Court-Entebbe.

THE WILL

Behind the legal paperwork, however, sits the real monster tearing the family apart — the Will.

Before her death, Christine Namubiru Nkutu reportedly left behind an elaborate Will clearly distributing her massive estate among her children and grandchildren.

But according to sources, the biggest shock was that Kavuma allegedly received the lion’s share.

Family insiders say this is one of the key reasons tensions exploded.

Conrad reportedly received the smallest portion after allegedly falling out badly with his mother before her death. Sources claim the two were no longer speaking.

In what many now interpret as a deliberate snub, Christine reportedly gave apartments to two of Conrad’s three children — Natasha Nkutu and Calvin Nkutu — instead of giving their father a full distinctive house or apartment.

Sources say Conrad is the only beneficiary among all the children and grandchildren who did not inherit a single complete standalone home or apartment.

One of the most bitterly contested properties is the luxurious Bugonga residence on Plot 3 Alice Reef Close in Entebbe.

According to family sources, the home was bequeathed to Kavuma in the Will. But the elder siblings have allegedly blocked him from accessing it.

Entebbe House

Another contentious property is the Kabaganda home in Kiteezi where Christine was eventually buried alongside her younger sister Betty Veronica Nansubuga who died on November 25, 2013.

Before his mother’s death, Kavuma reportedly lived there full-time. He allegedly occupied the master bedroom, used another room as his main office and another as a spare bedroom.

On November 17, 2025, shortly before her death, Christine reportedly gifted him all furnishings and household items inside the residence.

Yet after her death, he was allegedly blocked from accessing the property.

Kabaganda house

Under the Will, the Kabaganda home was left jointly to Sophie, Martin and Kavuma. Conrad was excluded entirely.

Even more significantly, the Will reportedly expressly stated that the home must never be sold.

It reportedly reads: “No one has a right to refuse access to any of my children to the said home, and any child who gets any hardships with regard to a place of abode, should freely stay at the family home at Kabaganda.”

Family insiders now claim long-running fallout between Conrad and his late mother may even have influenced her burial decisions.

Sources allege Christine deliberately abandoned the ancestral burial grounds at Busesa in Iganga and chose Kabaganda instead after nasty disagreements with Conrad.

One explosive allegation claims Conrad once assured his mother he would “do her a favour” if he buried her.

Family sources allege Christine practically ran away from Busesa and chose to rest in Kabaganda to avoid future conflict.

Ironically, after her death, Conrad reportedly joined Sophie and Martin in authorising the breaking into both of her homes during funeral preparations.

Lawyers Apollo Makubuya (husband to former Stanbic Bank MD Anne Juuko) and Kenneth Kiapi of MMAKS Advocates are reportedly deeply involved in the ongoing family battles.

Meanwhile, the fighting siblings’ mother Christine appointed lawyer Brian Serunjogi and Taibah International Schools proprietor Mariam Luyombo as executors of her estate.

One of the executors’ major tasks will reportedly be dissolving Sophies Limited.

The Will was formally read on January 21st, 2026.

As matters stand now, the late Christine Namubiru Nkutu’s vast estate remains unresolved as executors continue waiting for Letters of Probate from the High Court in Entebbe.

And if the current accusations, arrests, alleged Butabika plots, court fights and inheritance bitterness are anything to go by, this wealthy family war is only just beginning.

Watch out for Part 2 on Conrad’s alleged plans to exhume his mother Christine’s remains, Conrad’s explosive fallout with mother, lawyers Apollo Makubuya (husband to former Stanbic Bank MD Anne Juuko) and Kenneth Kiapi of MMAKS Advocates alleged conflict of interest and the fate of Will executors— allegations likely to ignite an even bigger family war in coming months.